The green chamber

Summary: Every house has its secrets, but none hides them better than the august house of the Delorme family. With its sixty-seven locks, brass-grilled counters, and impenetrable underground vault - where lie the mummified remains of a woman clutching a brick between her teeth - the Delorme residence may be apprehended as The Green Chamber's central persona. A private bank of a sort, it has always held its lot of ill-acquired gains, hidden vices, cruel rituals, and illicit substances away from prying eyes. Louis-Dollard Delorme, his miserly wife Estelle, and his three spinster sisters revere money so much that they have converted their residence's "green chamber" into a place of worship and have elevated domestic penny-pinching to an art form. As for the family's heir, Vincent, they intend for him to make a highly profitable marriage - a reasonable prospect, until the day when the house opens its doors to Penny Sterling, a young woman whose means equal only her curiosity.